A fund that honours a theatre icon enables local artistes to pursue their dreams and bring their work to the public.

THE grantees of this year’s Krishen Jit-Astro Fund comprise practitioners from various backgrounds chasing different visions, all in the name of art. They are Ho Sheau Fung, Aida Redza and Lisa Foo for The River Art Project; Chong Sheau Ching for A Portrait of Perseverance; Suzy Sulaiman for the Digital Architecture Heritage Trail and Adrian Pereira for The Desa Mentari Youth Project.

The largest award of RM12,000 goes to The River Art Project, the brainchild of dancer-choreographer Aida Redza and light installation artist Lisa Foo.

This experimental project is a mixed media performance encompassing light installation design, dance, music, and visuals, which will be held at two river sites. It will begin with a workshop performance at the Klang River in Kuala Lumpurnext March, to coincide with the International Day of Action for Rivers. This will be followed by the grand premiere at Sungai Pinang, Penang, during the George Town Festival in July 2011.

Aida and Foo first worked together last year in The Light Show, a light sculpture exhibition. Since then, their partnership has grown as they share a similar passion in expressing their art accompanied by the elements of environment and nature.

Aida has advocated community projects and social causes while Foo has focused on using recycled material for many of her projects to raise environmental awareness. For the River Art Project, they have approached ethnomusicologist Dr Tan Sooi Beng to provide a mix of traditional and contemporary music to complement the other components.

“We want to show that we can make a difference through our art but we have to find the right balance between dance, music and design first,” Aida explains.

Aida and Foo’s aim is to raise awareness of the importance of recycling and draw attention to the amount of rubbish dumped in the rivers around Malaysia. Foo’s specialty is creating light sculptures of various shapes and sizes out of recyclable materials.

“With this, the public can see that the plastics they throw out can be something delightful, and not just simple waste,” Foo says.

This project will also attempt to dig deeper into issues surrounding rivers and the effect these have on the communities living around them.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

A collaborative process by Lisa Foo & Aida Redza, the initiation of our River Project in 2011.

Performed by Aida Redza and Hilyati Ramli.

Light installations constructed of recycled plastic bottles & plastic bags by Lisa Foo. Reflecting the amount of plastics thrown into the river that could be turned into a delightful play of lights.

"Imagine flower reflections dancing on the surface of water,

oh, what a delight it would be"

Reflections is a performance installation of dance and light, deeply rooted in the natural environment and relying on a 'basic state' of materials and trash, constructed around a range of sounds and sight that reflects the performance site - the river as a magical space of play and transformation. The installation will lead the spectator to the heart of generous visual, kinetic and auditory ambiances that are modest, sensorial, simple and contemplative.

"The need to be creative heralds the formation of a cellular community, energy moving energy about. It motivates and gathers inspiration, and the end result is an exterior reflection of interior goings-on, albeit abstracted or full of symbolism. Sometimes we forget that art is about energy; personal energy which differs with every individual who tries their hand at being an artist."

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Fantastic Recycled Plastic is a book that discovers the creative potential of recyclable plastics. It's filled with imaginative and whimsical projects, whether it's wearable art or dimensional figures, toys or lights, for all ages to craft with recyclable plastic bottles as the medium.

About this Blog

This blog was originally started with the intention to feature our 'green' initiative in creating awesome and fascinating lighting sculptures using all parts of the plastic mineral water bottles. We hope to inspire people from all walks of life to view and re-think about using plastics in a different manner instead of just treating it as waste.Selected artists of interest will also be featured on this blog to provide a wider range of artistic ideas from different fields.